Networks Take Another Stab at Keeping Diminishing Comedy Audiences

If you’ve watched more than ten minutes of NBC’s Sochi
Winter Olympics, you’ve seen an ad for the network's post-skiing plans for
comedy domination, “About a Boy,” premiering this Saturday, 2/22, and “Growing
Up Fisher,” premiering the next night (before both shows move to regular
Tuesday timeslots on the 25th). As networks so often do, NBC is
hoping to use the platform of one success (the Olympics) to launch others. The
midseason begins and will feature highlights as accomplished as FX’s “The
Americans,” The Sundance Channel’s “The Red Road,” NBC’s “Hannibal,” and
A&E’s “Bates Motel”. Even the broadcast nets have a few intriguing dramas—NBC’s
“Believe” and ABC’s “Resurrection”.

However, things are dicier on the comedy front. Working through multiple episodes of the two lackluster new offerings from the Peacock network and a third
soul-crushing affair from ABC left me pondering the big question of the state of TV
comedy. Critical acclaim goes the way of HBO with award wins for shows like “Veep”
and “Girls” (with the outlier of “Modern Family”) while CBS dominates ratings
with war horses like “The Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men” (and no one
watches the best new comedy on the nets, “Enlisted,” buried by FOX on Friday
nights). Where does it leave everyone else? And are any of the four
returning/premiering comedies in the next week going to change the current
landscape? Starting with the over-promoted NBC pair…

“About a Boy”

Technically, this is the third time that Nick Hornby’s
beloved novel has been adapted. There’s the highly-respected 2002 film with
Hugh Grant and Toni Collette. It almost went to series a year later with
Patrick Dempsey in the lead role of a man-child forced into a higher degree of
maturity by his friendship with a unique young man. Eleven years later, they’re
trying again as NBC turns to the great Jason Katims (“Friday Night Lights”, “Parenthood”)
and begs for a comedy hit. With most of their critically-acclaimed but
low-rated comedies like “Community” and “Parks and Recreation” headed for
retirement soon and the failures mounting—if a network can’t turn Michael J.
Fox back into a TV star, you know it’s in trouble—there may be no net more in
need of a smash hit. Should “About a Boy” give NBC hope? Probably not.

Will (David Walton) runs into a beautiful cello player
(Maggie Grace) and lies about having a son to join her in a single parent
support group. Later that day, Will sees Fiona (a game Minnie Driver) moving in
next door with her son Marcus (Benjamin Stockham). While Will first sees Marcus
as a tool to help him get laid, they form a quick friendship. Don’t worry, the
series is not a weekly ruse in which Will pretends that Marcus is his son. It
is basically a buddy comedy—the man-child and the child who often acts like a
man.

When I saw the pilot last May, “About a Boy” felt fresh and
well-cast, partially due to the horrendous fall season premieres I was watching
at the same time (anything looks good next to “Super Fun Night”) but also
because it had an energy that most recent network comedies have been lacking.
The premiere has moments of clever insight into the dating process and how
parenthood can change you but the show spins its wheels for the next two
episodes sent for press, often repeating the same jokes and allowing supporting
cast members (Al Madrigal and Annie Mumolo, both displaying plenty of wit) to completely
hijack the show. I would like to think that the repetition over the first few
chapters of this version of “About a Boy” will come to a halt and the writers
will find the identities of their characters beyond hitting the same jokes
(Marcus likes to sing with his mom! Hilarious!) but I worry that the bag of
tricks was emptied in the pilot and this show has nowhere to go but the large
pile of canceled NBC comedy failures in the last decade.

“Growing Up Fisher”

If there’s any comedic justice in this world, “Growing Up
Fisher” will get the axe before “About a Boy”. There’s nowhere to go here; a
show so damaged that it’s not salvageable. One of the worst comedy pilots of
the 2013-14 season relies entirely on two-dimensional character tropes. Dad is
challenged but refuses to let it define him. Mom is trying desperately to
relate to her daughter. Son is awkward and uncomfortable with girls (there’s no
other kind of pre-teen boy in sitcom TV). I would say that we’ve seen “Growing
Up Fisher” before but the truth is what we’ve seen before was typically
funnier.

The most frustrating thing about “Fisher” is watching an
actor as talented as J.K. Simmons get sucked into such a poorly-crafted
enterprise. Simmons plays Mel Fisher, who has been blind since he was 12. He
has taught his son Henry (Eli Baker) to never let his disability define him,
which of course leads to “hilarity” like watching a blind man cut down a
tree with a chainsaw. Every joke, every line, every beat is built around either
a “I can’t believe a blind guy did that” joke or the lesson learned from his atypical parenting.
And if that kind of simplistic humor isn’t bad enough, Jenna Elfman fares no
better with a thankless “modern Mom” role. Someone could write a book on why
sitcoms in the ‘10s are built on the idea that women want to be like their
teenage daughters. But then they’d have to watch this show and that would be
cruel.

“Mixology”

NBC isn’t alone either in the struggle to find a new comedy
hit or the willingness to throw something new at the wall this mid-season.
Enter “Mixology,” a show with a reasonably clever conceit and strong cast but
sunk, again, by weak, narrow-minded writing. The show takes place at a bar,
weaving in and out of the conversations of the beautiful people, coming back to
the same few and sometimes offering flashbacks of how they got to this point in
their search for companionship. The show is smarter than the commercials have
made it seem in terms of quick dialogue but it’s all in service of the same old
nonsensical gender war clichés. Aren’t we past the “Men Are From Mars, Women
Are From Venus” tropes of sitcom television? Shouldn’t we be?

“Legit”

Which brings us to the only new or returning comedy in the
next week willing to push at convention a bit, and wouldn’t you know it’s on
cable? Jim Jefferies, a solid stand-up performer for years, saw his buddy Louis
C.K. hone his craft and expand his range on FX and decided to join in the fun.
Jefferies’ brand of humor is far more button-pushing and controversial. The
first scene of the season two premiere features him dropping his phone in the
toilet while trying to masturbate to internet porn on it. The whole show is
built around jokes based on the physically disabled as Jim helps take care of
his best friend’s brother Billy (DJ Qualls), who has Muscular Dystrophy. Billy
is often surrounded by a supporting cast of players with actual physical and mental
disabilities. Plots in the first four episodes of the new season include an
extended bit in which Jim can’t decide if he should drop his extremely racist
new girlfriend and manages sex addiction. There’s nothing subtle about “Legit”.

“Legit” is still a work-in-progress. Every joke that works
is countered by a few that don’t. And yet, especially when I’m forced to sit
through so many of the same old clichés on network TV, this kind of
in-your-face experimentation seems even more valuable. It’s certainly not a
show for everyone but maybe the networks would be better off if they stopped
trying to make “shows for everyone”.

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